Miller sure Rangers will rediscover goal touch
Striker not worried over missed chances
KENNY MILLER last night insisted nobody at Rangers was concerned about their sudden loss of form up front – and confidently predicted they could net “three or four” against Kilmarnock in their Scottish Cup replay at Rugby Park tomorrow evening.
Miller and his teammates dominated their Championship meeting with Alloa at the Indodrill Arena on Saturday – but were unable to capitalise on all but one of the plethora of scoring chances they created.
Michael O’Halloran slotted home eight minutes from time on his debut to ensure the Ibrox club drew 1-1 and avoided another ignominious defeat against the part-time rivals who knocked them out of the Challenge Cup last season.
Mark Warburton’s side have been on target just three times in their last four competitive outings and their failure to convert at the weekend could have allowed their nearest challengers in the league to close the gap on them at the top of the second-tier table.
However, Hibs, playing against Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena on Saturday evening, were unable to capitalise on the opportunity to edge nearer to the league leaders and drew 0-0 to remain eight points adrift with a game in hand.
Miller, who came on in the second half against Alloa, is unperturbed by the lack of ruthlessness in the final third in recent weeks shown by a team which has scored 93 times in all competitions so far in the 2015/16 campaign.
The former Scotland internationalist is confident Rangers can overcome Premiership rivals Kilmarnock in Ayrshire tomorrow night and progress to the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup – and a home tie against either Dumbarton or Dundee.
“There was chance after chance after chance in the first 20 minutes of the game against Alloa,” he said. “On another day, a couple of them would have gone in and it would definitely have given the game an easier feel for us.
“If we play that way and create that level of chance in the last 12 games, then I’ll be more than happy. We can’t create those sort of chances again and not score three or four goals. The players in that dressing room are too good to continue missing the chances we created. If we do that, then we’ll be fine.
“We’re not interested in what Hibs are doing. We’re ahead in the league. If we win our remaining games we’ll win the league, it’s as simple as that. If we create the chances that we did against Alloa then I’ll be more than happy come the end of the season and we’ll go up.”
Miller added: “We work on it every single week. The situations that supporters see us in on a Saturday are the situations we work at day in, day out. It is just bad luck, call it what you will.
“I thought we had enough chances in the Kilmarnock game to win. Against Alloa, we should have won comfortably, but we didn’t. We have to put it right. It might just be a wee blip and on the back of it we might go and bang in three or four on Tuesday.”
Miller was pleased to see O’Halloran, who was making his first appearance for Rangers after signing from St Johnstone for £500,000 in the January transfer window, score and believes it will do wonders for his self-belief.
“It will be great for him,” he said. “It looked like it was going to come at some point. He was fortunate enough to get on the end of a decent move and produced a good finish.
“He saved us a point, but we were really disappointed it wasn’t three.”